


Aftermath

by DistantStorm



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:22:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23949829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DistantStorm/pseuds/DistantStorm
Summary: Ahsoka and Rex, in the moments that follow.Spoilers for TCW S7E11: Shattered
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 3
Kudos: 114





	Aftermath

His blaster is still hot. The muzzle bleeds warmth through his armor, all the way down to the skin beneath. The rest of him is cold. He doesn't know if he actually feels much of anything.

His hands shake. They're too close to his blasters. He jerks them away, curls them into fists. Straightens his back. 

_"Rex, are you okay?"_

There are bodies lining the hallway, slumped through the threshold and a couple in the medbay themself. He's going to be sick.

Suddenly, he's sitting, his head is between his knees, and he doesn't remember when it happened. He can't breathe, he doesn't understand. Why? Why is this happening? How many more of his brothers will he be forced to kill?

Fingers frame his temples, calloused hands. He tries to lift his head, but she gently urges him back down. She has the hands of a soldier. Weapon-worn.

_"Yeah. Yeah kid, I'm okay."_

His shoulders shake now, too. She's only a child. She wasn't even a fully-fledged Jedi and he was - he was - he would have - he would have - 

_"Execute-"_

He claws at the dressing at his temple.

She sinks to her knees before him, trying to comfort him. As if - as if -

"Stop," He says, gasping for air doesn't know if he can breathe. "I can't-"

"I know."

"I would have killed you," He presses. She carefully pulls his bloodied fingertips away. He doesn't have the strength to fight her. "I would have-"

"You didn't," She reminds him. Gentle, like it's okay, like he hadn't just- "You fought it, Rex. You fought-"

His fingers wrap around her forearms. He lifts his head, golden-dark eyes boring into hers intensely, glossy and bloodshot and red. "I was going to. I _wanted_ to-"

She doesn't look away from him. "It's not your fault," She says. She does not shy from touching his face, from wiping away tears that won't stop, that are just another thing outside of his control. He doesn't deserve this. "Not yours, not any of the clones'."

"I'm sorry," He whispers, and then he's on his knees, too. He's got her hands, her small, battle-warmed hands cupped in his. He bows his head. "I'm so sorry, Ahsoka."

Some distant, detached part of him hears what she doesn't say. She doesn't say that he's forgiven. He'll never forgive himself.

He feels her forehead brush his own, the subtle, concealed ridge where her headtails begin to emerge from her scalp, warm and soft. "We're in this together, Rex."

He nods, never moving his forehead from hers, eyes screwing shut. His breath comes once again in strangled gasps, his mind buzzing and blank and impossibly full at the same time. These are the end times, he knows. The likelihood of them making it out of this is slim to none.

Ahsoka's hands shake but she doesn't hide it. She doesn't cry, because she knows it isn't over. She is just barely a child, but she is also a soldier.

She pulls her hands from his to wrap them around him, to hold him close, embracing him as though he is some child upon their mother's knee. He does not know what that is like, he has never experienced such a thing because he had no mother. His brothers, his Jedi, they were his family.

"I am one with the Force," She whispers, rocking him in the embrace. It isn't comfortable here upon durasteel, on their knees. 

He swallows hard, hands rising up, locking behind her back. The words come of their own volition, from someplace deep down inside him no chip could ever reach, "And the Force is with me."


End file.
